Progressive, inventive football is the way ahead; the age of the dinosaur has passed

When Divock Origi headed Liverpool into a 4-0 lead on Friday night, my friend turned to me in the briefly silenced Murderers pub and said what we were all thinking: “I can’t believe it.”

Before kick-off, another friend (who doesn’t follow football) asked how likely it was for Norwich to snatch a win, so I showed him the betting app on my phone – City were 20/1 against. He told me that must be worth a quid – I responded with a patronising shake of the head.

But we actually looked good. So good that, as Liverpool kept scoring goals – one, two, then three inside half an hour – a cruel sense of injustice reverberated around the pub as Origi made it four. Norwich kept attacking quickly and incisively, though. We were matching them stride for stride, if you forget the number of goals each team had scored.

But what did we expect? If you go to Anfield and don’t park the bus, you’re going to get slaughtered, right?

Well, not exactly.

Bear in mind that last season in the Premier League, Liverpool scored 55 goals at Anfield, conceding just 10. In fact, they conceded just 40 shots on target – they are defensively immense.

Let’s take the eleven teams that were most offensively impotent against them though – not necessarily the sides that ‘parked the bus’ but those sides that registered six shots or fewer throughout the game.

Of those sides, the Reds beat Huddersfield 5-0, West Ham 4-0, Watford 5-0, Newcastle 4-0, Burnley 4-2 (the Clarets had just three shots) and Cardiff 4-1 (just two shots for the Bluebirds).

Their record in total, against sides who registered six shots or fewer, was: played 11, won nine, drew two, scored 33, conceded five.

Meanwhile, Liverpool scored 22 goals against the eight sides who registered more than six shots against them last term – an average of 2.75 goals per game, compared to three goals a game against those with six shots or fewer.

Turns out Johann Cruyff may have known better than Rory from West London after all.

For the record, Norwich had 12 shots at Anfield on Friday night – only Bournemouth matched that figure last season. City also managed five shots on target – not one visiting team had more than three in the Premier League last term.

(They also restricted Liverpool to fewer than 500 passes – only the fourth time since August 2017 a side has achieved that at Anfield. So, while they struggled inside their own box, City were able to contain the Reds and break up play relatively effectively everywhere else).

As a result, Daniel Farke and his side have been rightly praised by Norwich fans for their style of football on opening night. Of course, we are slightly biased, so if you missed Gary Neville’s comments after the game, this is what he said to Sky Sports:

“Norwich have got their own way and you have to stick to what you’re doing. Otherwise, they [the players] will be thinking, what does this guy want me to do?

“I think managers nowadays, like Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, stick to what they do. They don’t change a lot. They adapt slightly, but more often than not, their principles remain, their values remain, and I think that’s critical.

“Those players want a common message. They don’t want a manager who’s all over the place – ‘play this way one week, then we’re playing against them’, reacting to who the opposition are too much. No, have confidence in how you play and go for it and I think that to me is the best way to go about it.”

As Norwich fans, we’ve seen for ourselves what happens when a manager loses his nerve. City were an exciting, progressive team under Alex Neil until one bad result at Newcastle turned them into a slow, conservative, boring side.

That won’t happen again this year; there’s no appetite for it at Carrow Road. Two years of Chris Hughton and almost a whole season of timid football under Neil have left the Yellow Army more willing to get relegated playing good football than stay up by scraping turgid goalless draws.

This message was conveyed to Farke and his players perfectly at Anfield, where City’s brilliant away fans staked their support for Farkeball loudly and clearly.

Besides, this style of football does garner results in the Premier League, as Wolves, Leicester, West Ham and Watford proved last season. Cardiff tried a more conservative style and were relegated; Fulham abandoned their philosophy in November and were also relegated.

There’s a reason why Sam Allardyce, David Moyes, Alan Pardew et al don’t have jobs anymore – football has moved on. Elite football – the Champions League and Premier League over the last two seasons and the World Cup in 2018, in particular – has shown that progressive, inventive football is the way to win titles.

Norwich – the club and its supporters – believe that playing this way will work for them too. Now they just have to prove it.

Reader Interactions

Comments

Jack I don’t know to much about the stats you quote but I do know what I like and parking the bus is not for me. I’ m prepare to support the Webbo and Danny approach, if it fails, so be it, no guarantee a different approach would succeed.

I confess. I feel that i have done post-Liverpool to death. Which is why i am looking forward to the Newcastle match. Norwich will play the same way, it is after all the best of them. Newcastle are not Liverpool, but i suspect they are going to be on it, like the vast majority of PL teams. Which means they will score, but less than the ‘pool. Norwich will have improved, the clarity of what is required and expected forged from bitter experience. I am hoping for some squad changes. So we will score more. A score draw is not what i want, it is not what i am hoping for, but a 2-2 draw is my pluck from the future.

There’s a very good reason big Sam doesn’t have a job anymore, he retired from club management -. After leading Palace to safety and improving Everton’s league position by a number of places, with fairly good win ratios for both. The latter built upon a solid defense, which I remember Norwich fans being solidly in favour of when Norwich were on our clean sheet run.

Norwich lost to an extremely good side on Saturday. No shame in that. But I’m not sure why we keep having articles talking about how we ‘won the second half’ or other plaudits… We were out of the game in 7 min, dead and buried in 20. Fine, we move on. But let’s wise up and remember this – the best strategy is the one that works.

You are really Chris Sutton, aren’t you? He has been talking, and now he is almost pleading. That second half means very little. It was a dead rubber, already over in a flash. Good as far as it went….but nowhere near the magical bullet clung onto by so many who should know better. Concentrate on what happened first half, stop looking the wrong way down the telescope….very well put. Farke and the team will be on it.

Absolutely right, Jack. Let’s play the Norwich way. I remember John Bond saying he’d rather go down playing good football than stay up “clogging” (as he put it), and that principle has been part of the club’s soul over the following 45 years or so.

Jose in a recent interview said he wants to get back into football with an all new backroom team and new ideas possibly he has realised his style no longer works even a serial winner must know when to change tack and try something new.

Will that be at a super rich club where he can buy the ready made players of old or try and bring youth through, but he will know that results count, even with city sooner than later they will need points on the board.

I hope that the first points come this weekend and Bruce is expecting a hard game.

Farke is planning to spend in January so the EDP is reporting lets hope he can get the talent he wants or is he just putting pressure on Webber.

Bruce is engaged in expectation management. He may genuinely believe it will be tough, but most Newcastle fans do not. We are the new whipping boys of the division and if Newcastle do not tonk us they want Bruce gone. Bruce is already under immense pressure. At the moment any pressure on Farke is self-imposed. He wants and expects to do well.

January spending is usually a form of emergency intervention, a response to injuries and/or poor form. Prices are usually heavily inflated because that is what it takes to obtain an above average player mid-season. The seller holds all the aces. Knowing Webber any January dealings will already have been scoped out. No silliness or panic will be permitted. I can see Norwich letting one or two go in January….player swaps rather than big bundles of cash?

I must admit that the stats perhaps are being over done a little, We did well at the end of the day, but still nil points as hardly anyone believed it would be any different .

I do believe had we got any closer to liverpool during the 2nd half they had another gear or two in readiness. Still I for one don’t think we shamed ourselves one bit, a few defensive mistakes, that have had plenty of debate and inches devoted to them.

Time to move on to the next game, at home is where we will start to get an idea of what we can achieve over the coming weeks. Forget the Liverpools Manchesters Spurs and Arsenal . it is the Wet Spams, the Bournemouths the Brightons, those around us where our survival will be won or lost.

I admire the way Farke and his team will not budge from their ideals of playing the game, long may it continue and be as successful of what we all want

I’m sure Farke and his back room team will have analysed the game and learnt from it. I don’t think we have the players to park the bus successfully even with months of training in that “system”. To get to the magic 40 points we have to win games so we need to attack the Farkeball way.

I hope we can get a win on Saturday to relieve the pressure of getting the first win. That pressure mounts which each winless game.

Watching MOTD again beause of course I am. The first goal made by an overlapping Byram making space for an advancing Tettey, that's right Tettey to take the ball wide, cross to win the corner. Hard to pick an MoM but Tettey was immense after so little football #ncfc

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